AN urgent meeting has been called between a hospital trust and clinical commissioning group, in an attempt to reverse cuts to the opening hours of a North Yorkshire hospital's paediatric unit.

The opening times of the short stay paediatric assessment unit (SSPAU), at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, were last week reduced by 20 hours a week in response to staffing pressures on South Tees Hospital Trust, which runs the hospital..

The children’s unit had operated from 10am to 10pm, but as of January 17, it closes at 8pm, Monday to Friday, and 5pm on weekends and bank holidays.

The SSPAU opened in October last year following changes to children’s and maternity services at the hospital.

At a Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group governing body meeting in Northallerton Civic Centre today (Thursday, January 22) North Yorkshire County Councillor and independent prospective parliamentary candidate Cllr John Blackie asked when normal service would resume.

Cllr Blackie asked members how soon they expect the services at the Friarage to be reinstated, and if they believed public confidence had been undermined.

Doctors had said the impact on patients would be minimal as very few children attend the unit after 8pm between Monday to Friday – four over a period of three months – or after 5pm on weekends.

But Cllr Blackie pointed out the number of admissions from Saturday to Sunday between 5pm and 10pm was 30, over the same three month period.

CCG governing body chairman David Williams called for an urgent meeting between members of the CCG governors and South Tees Trust chief executive Professor Tricia Hart to be arranged next week.

He said: “The CCG challenged this move at the time and it seemed to boil down to a resource issue – but I think the answer to whether this has damaged public confidence in the local NHS is unequivocally yes and we have real concerns about this.”

Board member Dr George Campbell said: “We are very disappointed at the cut in services and we are working with the South Tees Trust to get a positive outcome.

“We are pushing really hard and have had some robust discussions with the trust – we know there are issues around staffing but we got very little notice about the reduction in hours.”

Prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives, Rishi Sunak, and his Liberal Democrat counterpart Chris Foote-Wood also attended the meeting.

Mr Sunak said: “I have been pushing strongly for South Tees Trust to fix the problem by recruiting new doctors, something they are now actively doing."

Mr Foote-Wood added: “This needs to be reversed as soon as possible. Added to the reduction of other services, this continues the downgrading of our much-loved Friarage Hospital”.